Chapter 25

The young woman looked at her confused, “Vana? You never call me that, but I can’t say that I hate it. Besides, what would you like for me to do? Knock on the door of my own house? Who the fuck are they?”

From where she was standing, she couldn’t see her sister standing in the other room, but her eyes widened as Katie stepped into the main room.

“Kat’ilth’ana?!” Vana exclaimed as she ran across the room to embrace her sister in a warm and excited hug. “What are you doing here? When do you get back? Are you okay? Why are you wearing that choker? Who are those other people?”

Katie laughed, “We were visiting the kingdom, so I had to stop by. We only arrived today. I am doing okay, but after talking with our mother, I am doing better. The choker is a longer story, and the others are a part of it.”

“Hello Van’ilth’ana,” Entivala said with a wave. “It has been a while and you have grown much since I last saw you.”

She squinted her eyes for a moment before squealing, “Entivala?! Oh my gods, I didn’t recognize you. It has been a while and thank you.”

“I am Amenthia,” My blonde companion said, waving at the young Dryad. “I am a friend of your sister and Entivala.”

I gave her a warm smile and a wave, “I am Pathios, and I am also a friend of your sister.”

“Oh, I recognize you!” she said in awe. “You’re the one who won the Champion’s Challenge with Kat’ilth’ana and those others.” Turning to her sister, “Was it scary?”

“I knew Pathios would take care of things for the most part,” Katie answered her excited sister. “Though that final fight was a bit more worrisome, due to the unexpected threat that had appeared.”

Vana nodded, “Yeah, no doubt. Still what is with the choker? The other ladies have them too, but yours has strange writing.”

“That is because it is a slave collar that has been made to look like their chokers,” Katie answered in a quiet voice.

Vana’s eyes widened, “A slave collar?! What did you do to be made a slave and to whom the fuck are you a slave?”

“I tried to kill Pathios,” Katie answered, visibly embarrassed with the answer. “You know how bad things have been for us. I had turned to stealing and such but got caught. I was brought before the king, who wanted me to kill Pathios and try to bring Entivala back. I failed and was caught, as punishment I was enslaved by Tyr and put into Pathios’ service. I fought tooth and nail, not believing Amenthia or Entivala on how great Pathios was, but through his words and action I was shown how wrong I was. The enslavement was supposed to be temporary and there were some who tried to use me against Pathios, but I instead chose permanent enslavement to his bloodline.”

Vana’s eyes widened, and she turned to me, “I thought you were a good person, but how could you own my sister as a slave?”

“Judge me how you wish, but I also didn’t have much of a choice originally,” I answered. “Tyr bound her to me as a punishment for her actions, but I know that it was to show her the error of her thoughts. I too was shocked when she bound herself to me, but I couldn’t say no when she made that bond. Now there is nothing that can be done about it, but she made the choice on her own and willingly.”

Vana crossed her arms and glanced at the others, “So I take it that you two are fucking him, but how could you sit by and let this happen Entivala?”

“It is easy to be judgmental when you aren’t a part of events,” Enti asked, irritated by the insinuation. “If she hadn’t been bound to Pathios, she would have been most likely executed. It is a severe crime to try and kill the adventurer of a pact house. If she hadn’t been made Pathios’ slave, she would have been killed. Again the instance that she chose to be tied to him for life, was another such situation. They both did the best with the situation into which they were put.”

“How can you just stand there mother?” Vana asked, still worked up. “Your daughter is a slave!”

Kat’val’tora crossed her arms and said, “Have you bothered to look at your sister and how she looks at him? She isn’t a slave. She is an equal that is bound in a collar. He went as far as to have her slave collar changed to match their chokers so that she is as equal as possible with the other two. I understand your anger, I was mad at first as well, but they explained things to me, and I saw how she feels about him.”

“I still don’t like it,” Vana said as she turned to glare at me again. “You better take care of her, or you will have to deal with me.”

I bowed slightly and replied, “If I fail in my duty to protect someone I love, I will accept whatever punishment you deem fit.”

“Besides, we have more important things to talk about,” Kat’val’tora stated, pulling her daughters focus away from me. “It looks like we won’t be living here much longer?”

“WHAT HAPPENED!” Vana exclaimed. “Did father lose his job? I could try and go back out and get some more kills. I made three gold today, but I am sure I could get more.”

Kat’val’tora gave a small laugh, “No he didn’t, but please let me explain fully before you react. Pathios has given us one hundred thousand gold to help us move to Kortinos. With his help, we will open up a shop again and be near your sister. You would also be able to really take your idea of joining a pact house seriously.”

Vana’s eyes widened in shock, and she turned to look at me with her surprised look. As the surprise faded, she began to give me a more calculated look and I waited to see what she would do next.

“Why are you doing so much for my family?” Vana asked, suspicion evident in her voice.

“Because you are important to Katie, and she is important to me,” I answered. “I could tell that she was worried about you, and I had the means to help. You will be better off, Katie will be happier, and we have done more to help our pact house in the process. Everyone wins with this and all I am out is a hundred thousand gold.”

“You make it seem like a hundred thousand gold isn’t a lot of money,” Vana said with confusion and surprise in her voice.

I shrugged, “When you are an adventurer, you are accustomed to dealing with large sums of gold. I only gave out a fifth of our funds and I am confident that when we return, the others would have added to our funds.”

“I am sorry to have been so suspicious, but you can’t blame me for jumping to those conclusions,” Vana said as she looked away.

“While that may be true, you could have waited to hear all the information before you began coming to your conclusions,” I replied. “You are quick to jump the gun and I am sure that is the case with many things in your life. If you are planning to become an adventurer like your mother has told us, you need to stop that. It is dangerous and could get you hurt or eventually killed. This isn’t all fun and games. You saw a good friend of ours die in that fight at the end of the Champion’s Challenge and such things can happen in the dungeon if you’re not careful enough.”

I could see that my words had gotten through a little bit, but only time would tell if they would stick. We spent the rest of the afternoon talking with them and when it was time to eat evening meal, Katie’s father returned home. He looked very tired from his long day but was surprised to see us there. We went through everything with him as well, including him being upset at his daughter being a slave, but Vana and Kat’val’tora were able to calm him down a bit.

“I still don’t like the idea of my daughter being enslaved to anyone,” he grumbled as he moved food around his plate. “He could very well take liberties with her!”

All the women at the table began to laugh at what he said, confusing him and frustrating him as he couldn’t understand why.

Taking pity on him his wife explained, “She is in a romantic relationship with him, Dor’ilth. All of them are. So I am fairly sure he is taking liberties with her.”

“Actually he is taking liberties with all of us,” Amenthia retorted, softly though everyone had heard her.

I could see her father blushing a bit, but it was what Katie said next that really put the nail in the embarrassment coffin.

Katie glared at the blonde and said, “Like you’re one to complain Amenthia, you and Enti take as many liberties with me as he does.”

I had a small bit of smug satisfaction watching the normally shameless blonde become very red with embarrassment, though Katie’s father Vat’orth’ana equally matched her. With that over with, dinner progressed, and we enjoyed the evening. While they did invite us to stay the night, we knew that there wasn’t going to be enough space for everyone to sleep comfortably. We bade them goodnight and headed off to the tram but were told that the tram station wouldn’t be open until morning. They suggested that we go to a specific tavern, in Ruevil’tina, called ‘The Sticky Sap’. We thanked them for their help with that and were happy to find that the stable was still open. We left Vren’tik and we took our time, due to the quickly fading light. Entivala was able to generate a light that illuminated the area, without being too bright for us to see. We were about a half hour into our trip when we could see three horses in the middle of the road with people standing beside them. I glanced at the others, and they prepared themselves for what we would be running into.

“You will stop your horses if you know what’s good for you,” a man I would assume was their leader called out. “Well look at that, we came for two bitches, and we are going to get one for free!”

“How about you move out of our way,” I replied coldly, bringing my horse to a stop. “I would hate to need to wash my clothes this late at night. Move on and find someone else to bug.”

The jovial nature left the leader, “Listen buddy. We aren’t doing anything but taking these ladies off your hands and leaving you to rot out here.”

I glanced at my companions and gave a dejected nod, getting off the horse. The other followed suit, with Katie stumbling and having to stabilize herself before getting up. I gave her a look and she made a very subtle gesture to let me know there were four others. The look in her eyes told me that she would take care of them, so we moved forward to put some distance between the horses and ourselves.

“See, it is just easier to do as you’re told,” the leader said smugly, glancing at the two others with him. “Now your lady friends are going to come forward and we are going to bind them.”

I gave him my own smug smile, “Not going to happen Chuck! Instead you are going to become our prisoners and we will learn who sent you, what they paid you and where you were supposed to take them.”

The leader’s eyes narrowed, “I don’t think you understand the situation you are in my friend.”

I cocked my head to the side, “You have four companions surrounding us to give support in the capture, but there is one thing you didn’t think about.”

I saw a small reaction at what I said, as he glanced quickly at his compatriots, not sure of how I knew that.

My eyes narrowed and I stepped forward, “So this will be your last chance. Tell me who sent you, leave your weapons and gold, and I will let you live. Try anything, and we will only need to leave one of you alive, and still get your weapons and gold anyway.”

Trying to get back control of the situation, he drew his weapon, “You aren’t the one in charge here!”

I snapped my fingers and watched as ice encapsulated the three in front of us. The boss was left with his head exposed, but the others were completely encased. Katie gave him a feral smile and we watched vines emerge from the ground and wrapped tightly around the two on either side. A second later the vines constricted and the two shattered into chunks of meat and ice. He screamed for the four surrounding us to attack but nothing happened.

“I warned you,” I growled, walking towards him. “Katie is a Dryad, so she can detect around us via plants. She was able to tell where they were instantly. When I snapped my fingers, they were bound, while Entivala here is a spellcaster and she is particularly good at what she does.” I turned to Katie and said, “Nice touch on shattering the frozen ones.”